NGO’s, OEM’s, EU, WHO, UN and Electric Cars in 2050

Yesterday I attended an event in a beautiful old library next to the enormous and seemingly endless European Parliament buildings.An array of electric vehicles was parked outside the entrance which gave a clue to the subject under discussion, there were many men in suits in attendance, there were also many smartly dressed women and there was an old bloke who’d scrubbed up as best he could. That was me.The discussion was fascinating, illuminating, encouraging and sometimes depressing, realistic, hopeful and generally optimistic. However, more than anything else it was a group of people from all over Europe thinking long term.Not, how do we win an election this year, how do we stay in power for another 6 months, what compromises and backroom deals can we strike that will shit all over everything but keep us in office for the next 3 days.Proper long-term thinking.The talk, sponsored by Renault-Nissan, was titled “Electrifying road transport: between now and 2050” and was part of European Sustainable Energy Week, which, judging by the massive posters all over Brussels is a fairly high profile event.There were people from the UN, the EC, the UK government, obviously Renault and Nissan, the electricity generating sector, people representing the World Health Organisation who’s recent report on the carcinogenic properties of diesel fumes have yet to make the truly shocking impact they should, some wonderful people from Oslo where electric vehicles have really taken off in a big way, and an old bloke from England who’d scrubbed up as best he could.I won’t go into the massively complex detail of the discussions, the political decisions that need to be made to make anything resembling sustainable transport in Europe a reality, the pitfalls, the complacency, public ignorance, the coming changes in the supply of oil, the deliberate and very well funded efforts by the traditional energy supply corporations (coal, gas and oil) to do all they can to delay the implementation etc etc.We all know about that, well, we all should know about that but as I’m sure you’ll agree, the vast majority of people in the UK know far more about Sheryl Cole and whether she’ll be a judge in the next TV series where smug pillocks judge poor people who try to sing than they do about the looming energy crisis, but hey ho. Head, sand, la-de-da.What was encouraging overall was that everyone attending agreed that by 2050, all cars will be electric, the small internal combustion engines days are numbered. The cost of electric cars will fall, the implementation of a public charging infrastructure will increase, models of charging for electricity for cars will develop.(There is no charge for electricity for the many thousands of electric cars in Olso, all the public charging and parking is free and you can drive electric cars along bus lanes, and guess what, electric car sales are through the roof)Within a few years there will be zero emission zones in many European cities, this means you will not be able to take any car which emits fumes into a city centre, no, not even a Prius or Ampera/Volt.Models of car ownership will change dramatically due to developments in technology, more people will walk and cycle and use public transport, our cities will be cleaner and quieter and more pleasant to live in and we won’t be dependent on outside sources and forces for our energy requirements.So all in all, it was very uplifting.